http://www.studentsreview.com/IL/StAIC_comments.html Life at SAIC - Comments en http://www.studentsreview.com/IL/StAIC_comments.html There is some lost experience of the typical university, but this school helps focus on the fine arts and offers an experience you could not get at a normal university. If you are looking for the typi... Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:32:31 GMT StudentsReview 437-53127 Copyright 2009 StudentsReview, Ecliptical Technologies, Inc. 437-53127 437 18 Fine Arts - Painting/Sculpture/Photography/etc Female Undergraduate Class 2009 3rd Year Neutral There is some lost experience of the typical university, but this school helps focus on the fine arts and offers an experience you could not get at a normal university. If you are looking for the typical college experience this school is not for you. Mon, 28 Jul 2008 04:32:31 GMT http://www.studentsreview.com/IL/StAIC_comments.html http://www.studentsreview.com/IL/StAIC_comments.html It's a CR/NC grading system so there is not so much competition, and they don't critique in a way that will hurt your feelings. They expect you to have some artistic skills when you arrive, so they wi... Wed, 26 Dec 2007 02:53:50 GMT StudentsReview 437-43009 Copyright 2009 StudentsReview, Ecliptical Technologies, Inc. 437-43009 437 71 Interior Design Male Undergraduate Class 2009 2nd Year Advice It's a CR/NC grading system so there is not so much competition, and they don't critique in a way that will hurt your feelings. They expect you to have some artistic skills when you arrive, so they will not teach you core skills like drawing, computer graphics, or model-making. If you don't have those skills, learn fast or die. If you choose to skate through and barely pass, you can, and you will graduate without learning much. If you push yourself and are disciplined, however, you will learn a lot and come out with some great things in your portfolio. Wed, 26 Dec 2007 02:53:50 GMT http://www.studentsreview.com/IL/StAIC_comments.html http://www.studentsreview.com/IL/StAIC_comments.html My daughter went to the Summer high School program. She received a nice scholarship which helped the $4000 tag as we were coming from the west coast and are of low to moderate means. We received the... Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:16:06 GMT StudentsReview 437-40819 Copyright 2009 StudentsReview, Ecliptical Technologies, Inc. 437-40819 437 60 Art & Design Department Female Undergraduate Class 2011 1st Year Negative My daughter went to the Summer high School program. She received a nice scholarship which helped the $4000 tag as we were coming from the west coast and are of low to moderate means.
We received the materials list and purchased as much as could fit into the suitcase. (about $200 of supplies for a 3 week course)
The first day her teacher encouraged the kids to go to a lunch time lecture which most of them did. The lecture ended a bit after the afternoon class started and when they returned to class they were told that they were "Tardy" and that it could affect their grade. When they tried to talk to the teacher about why they were late she put them off and wouldn't listen to them.
Day 2: someone asked where they could purchase the required list of materials and the teacher (a SAIC grad) said, "Oh, you won't need any of those things. We have enough." NOT. There weren't enough supplies for the class and students were constantly scrambling for charcoal, brushes, etc.

The course description included figure drawing (NUDE) and how-to stretch your own canvasses. When asked when they were going to start these techniques the teacher JODIE said,"That will take too much time away from our painting time" and "I haven't hired a model for the summer class so we won't be doing figure drawing...".
Several of these High Schoolers insisted on the figure drawing and they got it...kinda. When I viewed my daughter's work when she returned home there were two paintings with a model: the model WAS FULLY CLOTHED!

Critiques with this "teacher" were brutal unless you were her pet and her favorite phrase was "I love this moment in your work" which became a snide comment amongst the kids. After 4 days most of the kids just gave up and did "Safe" work. How sad!

On the last afternoon the students had a chance to visit the other classes and see their work. Upon entering one of the other studios a student from my daughter's class said, "We were so gyped." The quality, size and breadth of the works were amazing, open and free.
In my daugher's class the pieces were small and timid.

The last thing was the Evaluation. The teacher stayed in the room making tactless comments to the students while they were supposed to be critiquing her. I am a college graduate and this is NOT the way a valid evaluation is conducted. When asked how the student's rated her, they all said they gave her a 4 out of 5...Why I asked? Jodie holds the grade which we need on our transcript. No one gave her any positive remarks so that they didn't have to lie and no one gave her any negative feedback so that we could get the "A" (Which they all did.)
Overall a great time in the dorms, made MANY friends, had a great TA, loved the museum and the city.
Gad, for the price stay home and take art lessons. Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:16:06 GMT http://www.studentsreview.com/IL/StAIC_comments.html http://www.studentsreview.com/IL/StAIC_comments.html I'm doing multimedia studies in sound, video, and performance. The school's system is open. You don't need to declare a major, so you can adapt your studies to your needs as a contemporary artist. I g... Fri, 20 Apr 2007 11:47:21 GMT StudentsReview 437-37879 Copyright 2009 StudentsReview, Ecliptical Technologies, Inc. 437-37879 437 46 Video/Media Female Undergraduate Class 2009 2nd Year Neutral I'm doing multimedia studies in sound, video, and performance. The school's system is open. You don't need to declare a major, so you can adapt your studies to your needs as a contemporary artist. I guess with any sort of college, you need to provide most of the motivation and energy towards creating challenges. It's pretty tricky when you have to have divide your brain's creative capacity to a wide range of practices. Fri, 20 Apr 2007 11:47:21 GMT http://www.studentsreview.com/IL/StAIC_comments.html http://www.studentsreview.com/IL/StAIC_comments.html There's a lot of cool graffiti on the walls of SAIC. Sometimes they clean it up which is a practice ridiculed by visiting artists. My first semester, I'll never forget walking into the northeast pai... Mon, 18 Dec 2006 12:29:21 GMT StudentsReview 437-34679 Copyright 2009 StudentsReview, Ecliptical Technologies, Inc. 437-34679 437 53 Other Male Undergraduate Class 2007 2nd Year Negative There's a lot of cool graffiti on the walls of SAIC. Sometimes they clean it up which is a practice ridiculed by visiting artists. My first semester, I'll never forget walking into the northeast painting studio corner and seeing he word "FRAUDS" spray painted across the painting lockers. It made me think of Hobo Symbols from the SYmbol Sourcebook: In the depression the homeless made markings that looked like graffiti or scrawls that were actually coded commmunication to the rest of the community.

The large majority of studio instructors at SAIC are graduates of SAIC. This creates a multiple decade spanning regurgitative theoretical blend, that can be as icky as this sentence sounds. Its kind of like Summer Isle in the Wicker Man.

They almost all repeat the same doctrine, which one reviewer here more or less paraphrases, that is terribly 85 - 93: The "Gifted Artist", also less reflexively referred to as the 19th Century conception of Genius is a myth.

Its untrue. I sat and worked with at least a hundred students I thought were extraordinarily gifted, who dealt with instructors who were extraordinarily not, who had no technical knowledge of materials, merely pedestrian understanding of current critical theory, no experience working in the fields they were supposedly expert in, and in some cases were almost sociopathic.

I had a sculpture instructor who did not know how to use plaster. I had a sound teacher who had never led a professional session. Oh and get this: I asked one of my painting teachers if they had read this book. The instructor said of course, and then I asked them about a specific part. Then the instructor said, well, um I read the first fifteen pages. Priceless, well, sort of...(3 grand a class, for those keeping score at home.)

Usually this lack of experience is given some sort of post modern justification, but its usually not very well grounded; any moderately rigorous analysis can see that the "Gifted/Genius" type of argument is completely semantic, but I digress. If you prod an SAIC instructor long enough you realize they really don't understand post modernism anyway:
When I asked one of my professors to define post modernism, she said its "kinda like Beck". Guess we can forget Derrida... Wow. This book should NOT be a general guide, ESPECIALLY for art students. Not all art schools are the same. The "Why" should be taken out and the title should read "Art Cannot be Taught at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago".

Art Lovers: BUY. Offers interesting insight into SAIC. Great art is made here despite the instruction, not because of it.

Art Teachers: BUY. But read this book backwards and upside down and you can magically become great Sages, or at least get your groove back.

Art Students: IGNORE. The comparative part you can get anywhere else. ignore this book and your teachers and be your incredible selves. But by all means check out Elkin's other books. He's awesome. Mon, 18 Dec 2006 12:29:21 GMT http://www.studentsreview.com/IL/StAIC_comments.html